How do you afford private school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We make about $190K. Have chosen private for each of our three kids for just a couple of key years in their educational journey. Our private is in the $20-24K/year range. A little help from grandparents (not full tuition, but about 60%) most years. For only two of the years we've had kids in private have we had two of them there at once; most years, one's been in private and the other two are in public.

We're in a small, old house with a $1400/mo mortgage; 10+ year old cars. We rarely eat out, don't have cable, use prepaid cell phone plans, etc. We live very modestly.

We are saving well for college and retirement.

OP here, is that 190k after taxes or before? Do your children do any enrichment activities?

PP you are referring to. 190K before taxes. Kids do little enrichment-- one is on a travel sports team but the coaches volunteer, so fees are just to the league. etc. Otherwise, public school sports (no $$) and one plays an instrument with school (minimal cost). We're about to hire a tutor for one kid for the first time so that will be a new, but necessary expense.

[Anonymous]

You would be amazed at how much you can make in tips working the pole. COVID has been a bummer, but I've had an uptick in on-line porn customers so it's all very affordable.

[Anonymous]

All of these incomes are insane. Please get some perspective. We do just fine on $80,000/year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of these incomes are insane. Please get some perspective. We do just fine on $80,000/year.

Plenty of people get by on that income. Most of them are not paying $40k in private school tuition.The thread is about how people afford private school. If you are able to afford private school on that income, good for you.

[Anonymous]

4 kids in expensive privates ($180,000+ total tuition a year). How do we afford it? To be blunt, we make a lot of money. One spouse is a big law partner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of these incomes are insane. Please get some perspective. We do just fine on $80,000/year.

Plenty of people get by on that income. Most of them are not paying $40k in private school tuition.The thread is about how people afford private school. If you are able to afford private school on that income, good for you.

It's called parochial school, buying an affordable house (hint: over half a million isn't affordable), and, idk, not spending ridiculously? Have you all not heard of Aldi? Paying cash for used cars? If I was making $400k a year, I genuinely do not know how I could spend it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of these incomes are insane. Please get some perspective. We do just fine on $80,000/year.

Plenty of people get by on that income. Most of them are not paying $40k in private school tuition.The thread is about how people afford private school. If you are able to afford private school on that income, good for you.

It's called parochial school, buying an affordable house (hint: over half a million isn't affordable), and, idk, not spending ridiculously? Have you all not heard of Aldi? Paying cash for used cars? If I was making $400k a year, I genuinely do not know how I could spend it.

I live in what you might call an affordable house. I make more than you, but not nearly as much as many others on this thread. But I don't care what they earn or how they spend it.
I think the main answer for you may be that you send your kids to parochial school, which likely costs much less than the typical $40k independent schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do they teach at the school?

I’m this case, no. But I don’t know if many schools that offer tuition remission anymore. That is a thing of the past....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of these incomes are insane. Please get some perspective. We do just fine on $80,000/year.

Plenty of people get by on that income. Most of them are not paying $40k in private school tuition.The thread is about how people afford private school. If you are able to afford private school on that income, good for you.

It's called parochial school, buying an affordable house (hint: over half a million isn't affordable), and, idk, not spending ridiculously? Have you all not heard of Aldi? Paying cash for used cars? If I was making $400k a year, I genuinely do not know how I could spend it.

Where we err live that family homes cost less than 500k?

[Anonymous]

We just do private for high school it’s $25k/year.

We make $485-550k/year. Two kids.

[Anonymous]

Our HHI is around $450k. We don’t have a mortgage, or debt of any kind. Our net worth (without house) is around $2.7million. (Which you would NEVER know by meeting us or seeing where we live.) we are both in our early 40s.

We can easily afford two kids in private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of these incomes are insane. Please get some perspective. We do just fine on $80,000/year.

Plenty of people get by on that income. Most of them are not paying $40k in private school tuition.The thread is about how people afford private school. If you are able to afford private school on that income, good for you.

It's called parochial school, buying an affordable house (hint: over half a million isn't affordable), and, idk, not spending ridiculously? Have you all not heard of Aldi? Paying cash for used cars? If I was making $400k a year, I genuinely do not know how I could spend it.

Where we err live that family homes cost less than 500k?

Plenty of places in DC? It's just outside the Bethesda/Potomac bubble.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of these incomes are insane. Please get some perspective. We do just fine on $80,000/year.

And you are paying for private school? No one asked for advice on how to budget or for judgement or how we should or shouldn’t feel about our incomes. The poster asked how people were paying for private school, and people are answering that question.

And honestly, I think it would be really, really tough to live in this area on $80k as a HHI with a kid. I know a lot of people do it, but it would be hard as hell.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of these incomes are insane. Please get some perspective. We do just fine on $80,000/year.

And you are paying for private school? No one asked for advice on how to budget or for judgement or how we should or shouldn’t feel about our incomes. The poster asked how people were paying for private school, and people are answering that question.

And honestly, I think it would be really, really tough to live in this area on $80k as a HHI with a kid. I know a lot of people do it, but it would be hard as hell.

And I say that as someone who made around $40k on the hill for a few years living in a crappy group house with no kids and no savings and racking up credit card debt. It definitely wasn’t living extravagantly beyond going to happy hour too much and my rent was only $500 a month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our HHI is around $450k. We don’t have a mortgage, or debt of any kind. Our net worth (without house) is around $2.7million. (Which you would NEVER know by meeting us or seeing where we live.) we are both in our early 40s.

We can easily afford two kids in private.

You do you but it reminds me of a deathbed admission: “i only regret my economies”